Philosophy Spotlight: Kodame
“Our behavior defines our character. If desires rule our actions, we are the subjects of nature’s whim, and we have as little control of our actions as we have of our desires. To experience true freedom, you cannot allow your unfiltered instincts to dictate what you do; instead, you must carefully reflect on each decision to ensure that it aligns with your better judgment.”
Inspiration: Kant’s Ethics
Kodame’s philosophy is an application of Kant’s ethics, particularly inspired from a seminar taught by Ermanno Bencivenga. Kodame is one of the oldest characters in our game, responsible for creating the forest that spread across Africa, so I wanted her quote to demonstrate a big picture mindset that Kant suits perfectly.
Kant’s ethical system is incredibly ambitious. He wants to explain how ethics apply universally while respecting each individual’s free will. Freedom has two important requirements - first, we each can set our own values and priorities, and second, our decision making must causally determine how we act.
The key challenge for Kant is the unpredictable influence of our desires. Taking inspiration from his predecessor David Hume, Kant believes that our goals are set by our desires and reason alone cannot tell us what we should want. But we do not choose our desires, and if we simply act on whatever desires we feel, we are not freely choosing our actions and are instead merely reacting to our given nature.
Rather than choosing our values, reasoning can help determine what limits we have to respect in order for each of us to have the space to pursue our own goals. This restriction is necessary for freedom and ethics to be possible. If we all acted without regard for each other, none of us would be able to live freely, and each person can reason this for themselves and understand what is necessary to live with mutual respect for each other’s freedom.
The second requirement for freedom is satisfied by the same solution as the first. Kant, again agreeing with Hume, believes that causation is simply universal correlation. So our will causes our behavior only if our actions always match what our reasoning determines we can or cannot do. If we always act in line with our reasoning, our judgment itself causes us to behave reasonably, and we are acting freely because our actions are directly attributable to our own will rather than our given desires.